How is Toothpaste Made?
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Brief History of Toothpaste
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We use toothpaste everyday, but never give much thought to the history of it, or what is involved in the production of toothpaste. While humans have cleaned their teeth for thousands of years with items from ground fish bones to pumice and sand, toothpaste as we know it was first developed in the mid-1800s. When toothpaste was first presented to the public, it was available in glass jars. In the late 1800s toothpaste was packaged in collapsible tubes. It wasn't until 1934 that the American Dental Association first put forth standards to be met in the production of toothpaste.
Modern Ingredients
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Toothpastes contain several different necessary ingredients. The first is a binder, which helps hold the other liquid and solid ingredients together. This affects the appearance of the paste. Two examples of binders are sodium alginate and magnesium aluminum silicate, although there are several others.
An abrasive such as chalk, softened silica or baking soda is also in the toothpaste. Some pastes include more than one type of abrasive.
A foaming compound or "sudser" is the ingredient that makes the toothpaste foam during use. It is the sudser that helps clean particles off the teeth. The most common sudser is sodium lauryl sulfate. Two more common ingredients are humectants, which keep the toothpaste moist and give it a sweet taste, and flavoring, such as mint or cinnamon.
Fluoride is a final ingredient that almost every toothpaste has, with sodium fluoride being the most common. Water is also used in the final production process, as well as a preservative which protects the toothpaste from developing bacteria. Sodium benzoate is a preservative often used.
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Putting It All Together
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All of the ingredients that are going in the toothpaste are weighed. This helps make sure that the ratio of the ingredients are accurate. The ingredients are then put into a large vat to be mixed. The vat holds enough of the mixture to make 10,000 tubes of toothpaste in the 4 oz. size. While the ingredients are being mixed, the tubes are put into an assembly where they are vacuumed and blown with high air pressure. This process makes sure that the tubes are sanitary. The capped end is pointed down, and the wide end is open to be filled. The tubes pass by a device which optically checks them to make sure they are properly aligned, and rotates them if necessary. They pass through the filling machine where a pump descends down and fills the tube. Then they move on to be crimped and sealed shut. At this point they also get a stamp stating where and when they were produced.
To a Storefront
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Once the tubes are sealed and stamped, they are placed into the small cardboard containers. Many toothpaste manufacturer's still do this final step by hand. Samples of the batch are also taken to quality control, where they are checked for their production quality. If the batch passes, they are boxed up and sent out to stores.
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Resources
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